Page 8 - English 11 | Games and Activities-5

THEME 5 BACK TO THE PAST

FUNCTIONS
F1 Expressing wishes and regrets for past events
11 GRADE F2 Talking about unreal past events
th

7 Life Has No Backspace!

The aim of this activity is to express regrets about general problems using I wish/If only. The activity also encourages
students to improve their writing skill and helps critical thinking and creativity.

Materials and Preparation

Deliver a blank sheet of paper for each group.

Procedure

1 Tell your students that you are going to read out different problems and they have to write appropriate regrets using
I wish/If only.
2 Write an example problem on the board to demonstrate the activity. E.g., ‘I’m sunburnt.’ Elicit appropriate regrets
from class.
E.g.
I wish I hadn’t fallen asleep on the beach.
If only I had applied sunscreen.
I wish I had protected myself from the sun while cycling.
If only I hadn’t played beach volley at noon.
3 Divide the class into groups of five. Choose a student in each team to do the writing.
4 Read out the first general problem given and set a time limit of two minutes.
5 The groups then write down as many regrets as they can using I wish/If only + the past perfect.
6 When the time is over, tell the groups to stop writing and swap their paper with another group for marking. Groups
score one point for each appropriate regret.
7 Write the scores on the board and then read the next problem given below. You can add some more general problems.
The group with the highest score at the end of the game wins.
General Problems:
• I’m late again for school.
• I’ve got a terrible headache.
• I feel really unhappy.
• I feel exhausted.
• I have no close friends and I feel lonely.
• I have a burning pain in my stomach.
8 Have the class vote for the funniest and saddest regret.

92 Ortaöğretim Genel Müdürlüğü Öğretim Programları ve Ders Kitapları Daire Başkanlığı